“El Nuevo Dia Orlando”- a local version of Puerto Rican mainstay “El Nuevo Dia”- was launched as a free daily in 2003. A spokesman for the paper’s parent company said that “the paper had consistently lost money” despite claims that ad revenue increased by 28% last year.

Though the newspaper was catered towards Central Florida’s Puerto Rican populace, the area’s growing Latino community will undoubtedly suffer:

Luis Suárez, president of Asociación Borinqueña de la Florida Central, Inc., the area's largest Puerto Rican community group, said this is a great loss for the local Hispanic community."El Nuevo Día Orlando emphasized what was relevant news for the Hispanic community, losing it means that we lose a spokesperson for our issues, we lose an ally in the Hispanic cause," Suárez said.

Unfortunately, some disturbances took place after a peaceful protest over Villanueva’s death.Villanueva’s family has appealed for calm though tensions remain in the mostly immigrant neighborhood north.

Argentina’s Senate approved a law yesterday that would allow eating disorders to be considered as diseases and, thus, covered under health care plans. Nicknamed as the “Obesity Law”, the proposal was backed unanimously by legislators and mainly is aimed at a population where about one in four are overweight.

(…) nutritional education programs are taught in all school levels and… a warning that “overeating is bad for your health” should be included for during advertisements of unhealthy food…

“The publication of diets or weight-loss methods without medical consent is prohibited” (according to the law).[ed. personal translation]

The law had been originally written to include obesity and had been inspired by a television show entailed “An Issue of Weight.”Yet legislators included bulimia and anorexia in the measure such as the banning of “extreme thinness as a symbol of beauty” by advertisers and fashion designers.

The law has had its detractors; one nutritional expert lamented that “the obesity epidemic (in Argentina) is too much for health care plans to support…Actions are needed not a new law.”

The latest photo to emerge shows Spanish women tennis players pulling the pose, apparently in anticipation of their Federation Cup match against China in April…

It was apparently taken after the team defeated Italy in the quarter-finals of the competition - the premier team contest for women tennis players - in February. Wine glasses are visible on the table in front of the party…

The photo is still visible on the official website of the Spanish Tennis Federation, where it was spotted.

The original is captioned “Estamos preparados para China”, which translates as “We are prepared for China”.

(The Spaniards won against China in the Fed Cup en route to the finals which have yet to take place).

Meanwhile, this article notes how several Beijing citizens reacted to the offending basquet team photo.None had previously seen the image due to local media controls and most where not offended by the photo.(The piece was via NBC who holds the broadcast rights to the Olympics. Is it any coincidence that the Chinese reaction wouldn’t be outrage in the article?)

Thus, it has been nauseating to read the overly rosy picture of the country painted by Colombian presidential advisor José Obdulio Gaviria (image).An article in newsmagazine Cambiohighlighted his visit to Washington last month in order to promote the policies of his widely popular boss, Alvaro Uribe.“The speech’s contents were neither the most strategic nor the most convenient” in light of the free trade debate, said the article.

Here are several excerpts (translated by me) from Gaviria’s controversial discourse:

The (armed) conflict is practically a finished topic…What we need to say is “we did not have a civil war, what we had was a terrorist threat that wasn’t faced”…

What we have said is that Colombia doesn’t have an internal armed conflict…Therefore, when the president says that “there’s no armed conflict” he means that the elements which define armed conflict don’t exist…

In Colombia all the conditions exist so that by 2010 the guerillas will cease to be…

Paramilitaries do not exist today…That terrible night is over…

The “Black Eagles” [ed. criminal group consisting in part by ex-paramilitaries] are a political tool used against the government…created to give the appearance of threats when they are convenient.

Sadly it appears that such a close member of Uribe's administration has been afflicted with foot-in-mouth syndrome. Gaviria had previously deemed as “a nuisance” international mediators seeking a peace agreement in Colombia, while in March he suggested that an anti-violence rally had been organized by guerillas.

The web-tracking company ComScore has released a report that confirms Facebook has overtaken MySpace in global users, and that users from Latin America are the major driving force behind the social networking site's surge.

According to the ComScore data, Facebook's visitors (defined as unique hits) grew by a whopping 1055% in Latin America since June 2007. This percentage jump in Facebook use compares with a reported 33% uptick in overall social network use from witin Latin America, and is more than double the percentage change in any other world market since last year.

Other SN sites such as Friendster, Orkut, Sonico and Hi5 appear to remain popular in theregion, as well; though the referenced data doesn't appear comparable, VentureBeat's Eric Eldon writes that "Sonico has claimed to be the fastest growing social networking site in Latin America," that Hi5 still has the most registered users in the region, and that Orkut (in Portuguese) continues to dominate Brazil, the largest LAC market.

As for Facebook's rise: according the National Business Review, "the incredible worldwide growth is largely attributed to Facebook’s recent decision to translate the site into other languages, with Latin America only having 1 million users per month a year previous, and all of Asia Pacific [the second fast-growing region, according to the report] only 4 million."

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

I don’t like to sound like someone from the I-hate-Fox-News-Channel brigade, but is it any surprise that some of the network’s commentators weren’t upset at the Spanish basketball team’s infamous slant-eyed Olympics ad:

(I bet they would be singing a different tune if the Spaniards were making fun of U.S. athletes by, say, stuffing pillows under their unis and looking as if they were morbidly obese).

Members of the Spanish basketball squad defended the print ad with one of them trotting out the lame “my best friend is ____” defense.Naturally, the corrupt International Olympic Committee accepted the team’s apology.

There have been several instances if racism and sport in Spain in the past; monkey chants were made from the stands of a 2004 England-Spain soccer friendly in Madrid, while in the 1990sex-Atletico Madrid owner Jesus Gil y Gil threatening to “slash the nigger’s throat” and “shit on the bitch mother” of Colombian player Adolfo Valencia.

This is not the first time a Spanish ad has been controversial due to tastelessness and possible racism; this 2007 commercial for Iberia Airlines was deemed “offensive” and could even have been interpreted as pedophilic:

A U.S. Border Patrol agent shot and wounded a man on the other side of the border with Mexico.According to San Diego police, the officer reacted after being hit with rocks tossed by a small group of migrants trying to climb a border fence. Both the Border Patrol and one of the members of the group differ in their accounts as to what really happened:

Jose Maria Martinez, who was with the group, said one agent exchanged his pepper ball launcher for a rifle. The agent then fired three shots from a concrete post that marks the official border, Martinez said…

Another Border Patrol spokesman, Daryl Reed, said the agent fired his gun on U.S. soil after seeing Ortega wielding a softball-sized rock on Mexican soil. He said the group hurled rocks at agents from inside the U.S., but returned to Mexico after the Border Patrol used tear gas and pepper projectiles.

The injured man is being treated in Tijuana's General Hospital after the bullet “entered his left buttocks and exited through the pelvis.” The Border Patrol officer has not been identified to the press.

According to Villa del Cine chairwoman Lorena Almarza there is prejudice by US and European producers, who have not contributed the money…

In statements to the Bolivarian News Agency, Almarza pointed out that the script remains unchanged, as well as production agreements in the country, with participation of 50 percent of Venezuelan professional, technical or artistic personnel…

Almarza added that big producers are not interested in producing a film dealing with an anti-slavery movement.

In an interview last month, Glover admitted that producers ask “where are the white heroes?” and claim that “a black film” would fail in the international box office.

“Toussaint” is planned to star Don Cheadle in the titular role along with Angela Bassett and Mos Def.

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

The human rights situation in Cuba continues to be grim under Raul Castro, according to a report by the island's main human rights group.

The study by the Cuban Commission on Human Rights (CCHR) claimed that authorities keep taking a hard line against dissidents despite the change in leadership two years ago. The report mentioned that there has been a small drop in the number of political prisoners yet blamed the government for employing new tactics in order to intimidate any sign of dissent:

(CCHR head Elizardo) Sanchez said that instead of sentencing opponents to long prison terms, the government now employs "low intensity" repression, such as the 640 brief detentions of dissidents his group documented over the past six months.

In those cases, opponents are typically detained by police so they cannot attend scheduled meetings or protests, then released after a few hours with no charges filed.

The report also expressed worry that Castro's decision to commute the sentences of several prisoners on death row would create “false signals of change” on the island.

As Cuba’s human rights situation continues to deteriorate, dissident groups keep playing the waiting game with the Castro administration.

Image- BBC News (Members of Cuba’s “Women in White” are detained while protesting in April 2008)

Attorney General Michael Mukasey said that criminal charges will probably not be brought up against several accused officials under his predecessor- Alberto Gonzales.A Justice Department report published last month blasted several aides to the Mexican-American former Attorney General for using politics as a “litmus test” in the hiring of lawyers and immigration judges:

A longtime prosecutor who drew rave reviews from his supervisors was passed over for an important counterterrorism slot because his wife was active in Democratic politics… And a Republican lawyer received high marks at his job interview because he was found to be sufficiently conservative on the core issues of “god, guns + gays.”

I’m not versed in the intricacies of the U.S. judicial system, yet Mukasey’s reasoning made little sense.His argument boiled down to claiming that illegal actions aren’t always crimes:

(…)While there was wrongdoing and "a failure of supervision by senior officials in the department," the conduct was not criminal, Mukasey said in a speech.

"Where there is enough evidence to charge someone with a crime, we vigorously prosecute," he told the American Bar Association annual meeting in New York. "But not every wrong, or even every violation of the law, is a crime. In this instance, the two joint reports found only violations of the civil service laws."

Mukasey emphasized that “much has changed since the period covered by these reports” though he neglected to give more details.Meanwhile, the inspector general is expected to issue more reports on the politicization of the Justice Department under Gonzales.Thus, Gonzales’ post-AG career may be going from bad to worse.

One year ago a pair of powerful earthquakes rattled coastal Peru. At least 500 people were killed, thousands were left homeless, and several cities were left in ruin.President Alan Garcia pledged to help affected areas quickly rebuild though the Peruvian government was criticized for poor organization in the delivery of much-needed supplies.

Despite claims of progress being made by Peru’s housing minister recovery efforts have been painfully slow.The bump in approval received by Garcia after the quakes disappeared as residents of the affected cities are angry at the government.Protestors in the city of Pisco plan to march on the one-year anniversary of the tremors this Friday.

While residents of affected areas are disappointed at Garcia, some have become grateful for the help from Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez:

"Thanks to God and to Hugo Chavez, I have a house," said Emma Euribe, 50. She and her four children moved into their plastic-walled home two months ago, marveling that it sits in front of a new park and came fully furnished.

"Look what Hugo Chavez, who isn't our president, has done for us. The corruption here needs to stop because we're human beings in need," she said…

Chavez is spending money in Peru largely to support his ally and Garcia's rival, Ollanta Humala, an ultra-nationalist who hopes to become Peru's next president in 2011…

"Frankly, we don't have a lot of faith anymore but hopefully Humala could do more for us," (Pisco resident Berta de la Cruz Espinoza) said.

Though Chavez’ help has been welcomed it isn’t the first time that he has used earthquake aid in order to help Humala.Tuna cans with the images of Chavez and Humala were distributed to quake victims; a move deemed by Garcia as “electoral propaganda.”

Earlier today we touched on Univision news anchor Maria Elena Salinas’ op/ed piece criticizing the self-deportation program touted by U.S. immigration authorities.Not to be outdone, her colleague- Jorge Ramos- appeared on The Colbert Report last night, and discussed the numerous contributions made by immigrants and Latinos to American society.

Before the interview, Colbert’s south-of-the-border alter ego explained Ramos’ appeal to viewers.Esteban Colberto explained that aside from being a seasoned journalist apparently it also helps to have ravishingly good looks:

The Mexican-American Richardson was recently endorsed by the Denver Post to be Obama’s running mate and in recent weeks he has been increasingly vocal in his support of the Illinois senator’s presidential candidacy.Take Richardson’s appearance on one of the Sunday morning political gab-fests talking about the Russia-Georgia conflict:

“(Republican presidential hopeful John McCain) takes huge amounts of money from oil companies that are profiting in the (former) Soviet Union and many parts of the world," the Democrat told ABC News, attempting to depict a conflict of interest for McCain.

Richardson, a former US ambassador to the United Nations, said the crisis vindicated Obama's pledge to rebuild US alliances in Europe that were strained under President George W. Bush.

So what are the odds that Richardson could be Obama’s pick for veep?Not too bad, it seems.

What does Goni have to do with Morales? His failure coincided with the rise of Morales as a key opposition figure and subsequently the presidency.Furthermore, the exiled Goni is wanted by the Morales administration for alleged genocide.

Gay inmates do not have the right to conjugal visits like heterosexual couples do according to a verdict handed down by Costa Rica’s highest court.The decision by prison officials to stop the weekly conjugal visits of a former convict “falls within the scope of their rights, duties and powers” said the country’s Constitutional Tribunal.

The court, however, is still debating another appeal in a similar case that challenges prison rules restricting conjugal visits to heterosexual couples as violating the basic right to sexual freedom of all inmates, including homosexuals.

The high court's ruling could also be affected if Congress votes and passes a bill currently under debate that would legalize gay marriage.

Approximately 20,000 Costa Ricans marched last month in a protest organized by religious leaders against homosexual marriage.However, there is a “substantial level” of gay tourism in Costa Rica, according to one source, which could be affected over the gay marriage issue.

From the ITA's web site: "The second annual Americas Competitiveness Forum (ACF) will be held on August 17-19, 2008, in Atlanta, Georgia. The Forum will provide an opportunity for governments, the business community, and representatives from academia and non-governmental organizations to discuss actions that can be taken to improve competitiveness and economic prosperity in the Americas."

The ACF will feature 4 presidents from the region, anddiverse participantsfrom at least 25 countries. Presentations will focus on investment opportunities, regional trade, alternative energy, public-private partnerships, and a range of other topics.

Remember back in June when Maegan mentioned that people from the U.S. are heading south of the border in order to buy cheap Mexican gasoline?It seems like officials of one border town aren’t too happy with the new clientele:

Authorities in the Mexican border city of Ciudad Acuña have started a program to discourage Americans from crossing the border to fill up extra drum, tanks or barrels with subsidized Mexican diesel fuel.

The city government says it has fined Americans in four cases and would impound their vehicles until they pay the fines…

The city also says it has started informing U.S. drivers that filling up the tanks of their own vehicles is fine, but carrying extra containers home with fuel is a violation of customs and export rules and in some cases is a safety violation.

Mexican provincial authorities don’t stand by Ciudad Acuña’s plan.José Eduardo Ramón Valdés- a representative of the Coahuila state government- has ordered that the four cars be returned and that the fine get dropped since it could discourage tourism from the U.S.(Since money talks, wouldn’t that really be the most important reason against Ciudad Acuña’s program?)

On a related note, Mexicans are divided over the federal government’s plan to partially privatize the operations of state-run oil firm Pemex.

According to the exit polls some local governors didn’t seem to receive Morales’ good fortunate.Three of the eight provincial prefects whose jobs were also on the line appeared to have been ousted including two representing anti-Morales factions.Yet the opposition also seemed to have made some gains in that governors of four states backing increased autonomy appeared to have won.

"It won't change things much either way," said Kathryn Ledebur, director of Andean Information Network, a private research institution. Ledebur said she expected Morales to win, but the deadlock would remain, she said, and "each side will use it to become more deeply entrenched in their positions"…

"He's one of us. He has brought about such change, like nationalization," said Rolando Cenabire, 42, a builder from El Alto. "If he loses, we lose our rights"…

"The government is a satellite of Hugo Chavez and wants to impose a Constitution that centralizes, destroys institutions and the economy," said former President Jorge Quiroga, who heads the rightist opposition party Podemos.